Ontario high school teachers have cancelled plans to stage a “political protest” that would have likely closed secondary schools in Brampton and across the province next Wednesday.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) said it was calling off what had been called “a day of protest” in light of the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) ruling that squashed plans by the province’s public elementary school teachers to conduct a similar work stoppage today.
“Given the recent ruling by the labour board we are not going to be (conducting a day of protest),” said Lori Foote, an OSSTF spokesperson. “We are cancelling that day of protest.”
Union officials are now discussing what they might do next to demonstrate opposition to the Liberal government’s Bill 115. The legislation imposes two-year wage freezes, pay cuts, benefit reductions and other education spending restraints on public high school and elementary school teachers to help the provincial government meet its deficit reduction targets.
Unions have called the legislation unconstitutional and an attack on democratic and labour rights in Ontario. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) had planned to have its 76,000 members stay out of classrooms today as part of a one day political protest.
But the provincial government called those plans an illegal strike and filed an application with the labour board to avert temporary shutdown of schools today. After a hearing that lasted some 13 hours, the board ruled early this morning the protest was indeed an illegal walkout and ordered the union to cease and desist those plans.
OSSTF officials decided the labour board would reach the same conclusion about their plans and cancelled the provincewide work stoppage.
“I want to thank the ETFO and OSSTF union leadership for acting responsibly in the face of the OLRB decision,” Premier Dalton McGuinty said. “This ruling now puts the remaining questions around Bill 115 squarely in a sphere of the courts.”
Unions have launched a legal challenge of the legislation and its constitutionality. McGuinty has said he would prefer teachers and the government hash out their labour dispute in a courtroom rather than schools, where students and parents can get caught in the middle.
“There’s an opportunity to begin laying groundwork for more productive negotiations next time,” he added. “Resuming extracurricular activities would be an encouraging step forward.”
High school teachers have stopped volunteering to supervise sports teams, clubs and other student events— cancelling extracurricular activities at most high schools in the province.